A symposium entitled "Fetal Physiology: Cellular and Systems Approaches" will be held at the Lester B. Pearson College of the Pacific on Vancouver Island British Columbia July 8 through 12, 1986. This meeting is a Satellite Symposium to The XXX International Congress of the International Union of Physiological Sciences (IUPS), which is being held at The University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada, July 13-19, 1986. In recent years, fetal and placental physiology, as is the case for most areas of physiology, has diverged into two approaches which are used to answer physiologic questons. One is the more traditional whole animal or integrated systems approach. The other uses the methods of cell biology and questions of function are answered at the cellular, subcellular and molecular level. Individual investigators using these approaches have a tendency to segregate themselves. The purpose of this symposium is to bring together individuals whose studies in fetal and/or placental physiology are undertaken in these two manners in order to have a forum for exchange of ideas and methodologies.